Starz Has High Hopes for its Original Shows

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Starz now believes something that HBO and Showtime have known for over a decade: subscription channels need original shows to stand out on an ever more crowded cable dial.

While Starz, a unit of Liberty Entertainment, already has a strong selection of feature films, it is expanding its programming strategy to include half-hour comedies and hourlong dramas. The network’s newest program, a sitcom about aspiring actors-slash-caterers called “Party Down,” has its premiere on Friday.

With “Party Down,” a companion comedy called “Head Case” and a widely promoted hourlong drama based on the Oscar-winning film “Crash,” Starz has become the latest contributor to the renaissance of scripted programming on cable. Executives said that Starz was seeking a new identity, one not limited to the feature films it has shown for years.

“We’re the new guys on the block, even though we’re 15 years old,” said Bill Myers, president of Starz Entertainment.

Whether it was “The Sopranos” on HBO, “The Shield” on FX or, more recently, “Mad Men” on AMC, original programs have lent new identities to an array of channels. Each one, whether a pay service like Starz or an ad-supported one like AMC, “wants something that is exclusive,” Mr. Myers said. “It gives you recognition and brings customers back to you.”

Like the cadre of channels before it, Starz entered the originals business deliberately. Choosing not to produce talk shows, reality shows or mini-series, it planted a comedic flag with “Head Case,” a comedy about an unsympathetic therapist, in the spring of 2007.

Last fall it introduced “Crash,” an ensemble drama about race relations. What “Crash” lacked in critical acclaim, it made up for in name recognition. Between Starz and its sister channel, Encore, the episodes averaged about a million viewers each, according to Nielsen.

Programs like “Crash” and “Party Down” help promote the Starz brand in a way that feature films, the staple of every premium cable channel, cannot. Starz counted 17.7 million subscribers at the end of 2008, about a million more than Showtime. But for several years Showtime has received more media attention because of its original shows, which include “Dexter,” “The L Word” and “Weeds.” (HBO, which reports 29 million subscribers, surpasses both channels.)

Because premium channels see a ratings bump on weekends, Starz is establishing Friday nights as its time for new shows. A second season of “Crash,” which is backed by many of the film’s producers, has been ordered. The show, which played out like a cop drama for part of the first season, will broaden its storytelling in the next season, said Stephan Shelanski, Starz’s executive vice president for programming. Half the characters, including the star Dennis Hopper, will return, while new ones will fill in the gaps. “We’ll probably do that every year, just to change it up,” Mr. Shelanski said.

Meanwhile the network is in preproduction for its second drama, “Spartacus,” an hourlong action series that Starz plans to begin in January. “Spartacus,” Mr. Shelanski said, would seek the same stylized look and brutal feel as “300,” the hit film about a Spartan battle to the death.

Now the priority for Starz is to develop a third hourlong series that could be paired with “Crash” and “Spartacus.” Executives said they had no numerical goal for the number of original programs they wanted to distribute.

Gary Lico, chief executive of CableU, a firm that monitors and analyzes cable networks, said Starz needed to invest more in marketing to attract viewers. “Is there water-cooler buzz about any of these shows?” he said. “No.” But he added, “That’s not to say that they’re not good programs.”

Rob Thomas, a co-creator of “Party Down” who also created the UPN series “Veronica Mars,” said there were particular perks to working for a fledgling network.

“It feels so much less corporate” than some other productions do, he said of “Party Down,” “because everyone is trying to figure out what’s best for the show.” But producing the show can also be frustrating, he acknowledged, because every decision can seem like a precedent-setting one.

With so many channels competing for standout shows — Epix, the forthcoming cable partnership including Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lionsgate, is developing a series about a dysfunctional country-music family — Mr. Shelanski said it can be difficult to build a channel’s brand.

“A lot of other networks have set a really high bar,” he said.